Queer North Film Festival has become one of the largest LGBTQ- themed film festivals in Ontario, and is currently the only queer film festival in Northern Ontario. Queer North celebrates the diversity of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender & two-spirited communities through quality cinema. In this our 8th edition, Queer North spans 4 days in June drawing attendees for an in-person in-theatre festival experience with film premieres, artists talks and socials that focus squarely on queer-themed films & videos from Canada & around the world. To enhance Queer North Film Festival’s impact, audience & jury awards are an important component.
Download 2024 Screening Schedule HERE
by Khoa Lê
2023 | Canada | Documentary | 98 min.
In Saigon, family culture carries on as it has for centuries, even when blood ties are broken. Through a mosaic of intimate portraits, Má Sài Gòn explores humanity’s universal desire for love, acceptance, connection and belonging through an LGBTQ+ lens. The film is a love letter – a bittersweet ode to a comforting yet disturbing mother, to a city that is as liberating as it is oppressive.
by M.H. Murray
2023 | Canada | Drama | 105 min.
As Benjamin, a working-class musician and gay immigrant, grapples with the aftermath of a traumatic sexual assault by a stranger, he faces the daunting challenge of securing access to costly HIV preventative medication. Amidst this struggle, he finds himself drawn into a delicate dance of romance, navigating the complexities of new love.
by Darrin Hagen
2024 | Canada | Documentary | 80 min.
Pride vs. Prejudice delves into the riveting narrative of the Vriend v. Alberta case, where Delwin Vriend, an unlikely hero, courageously battles against discrimination from a government determined to deny his human rights . Uncover the twists and turns that unfold as Vriend's pursuit of justice challenges societal biases, culminating in a ground-breaking Canadian Supreme Court ruling in 1998 that confronts prejudice and sets a transformative precedent for LGBTQ+ rights that is cited around the world.
by Claire Burger
2024 | France/Germany/Belgium | Romance Drama | 105 min.
Fanny a 17 ans et elle se cherche encore. Timide et sensible, elle peine à se faire des amis de son âge. Lorsqu'elle part en Allemagne pour un séjour linguistique, elle rencontre sa correspondante Lena, une adolescente qui rêve de s’engager politiquement. Fanny est troublée. Pour plaire à Lena, elle est prête à tout
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Two penpals from France and Germany navigate an in-person relationship in Claire Berger’s coming-of-age drama. Love, familial angst and the future of Europe mix together in a compelling mix in Langue Etrangere, a Franco-German female coming-of-age story about crossing borders, both geographically and emotionally.
by Mikko Mäkelä
2024 | UK | Drama | 110 min.
In this queer drama, we follow Max, a 25-year-old freelance writer and aspiring novelist who seems well on his way to success in London’s cultural spheres. Yet by night, he finds a different kind of exhilaration as a sex worker with the pseudonym Sebastian, meeting men via an escorting platform. Max uses his experiences as Sebastian to fuel his stories and the worthy debut novel that he has been longing to write, finally seems within reach. As Max increasingly struggles to remain in control of a delicately balanced double-life, he must reckon with whether Sebastian is merely a writer’s tool in their quest for the ultimate sense of first-hand authenticity –or whether something more is at stake.
by Hannah Pearl Utt
2023 | USA | Comedy | 92 min.
As a self-important indie artist in Portland, Cora considered herself a big fish in a little pond. So she sets off to make it in LA. Confident she can maintain her open relationship with her girlfriend back home, she wastes no time trying to seduce as many folks in Los Angeles she crosses paths with. When Cora (Meg Stalter) puts her fledgling music career and life of random hookups on hold to go back home to win her girlfriend back, she realizes it’s much more than her love life that needs salvaging.
by Alexandrai Bombach
2023 | USA | Documentary | 123 min.
With 40 years of making music as the iconic folk-rock band Indigo Girls, Amy Ray and Emily Saliers have made their mark as musicians, songwriters and dedicated activists. They have represented radical self-acceptance to many, leading multiple generations of fans to say, “the Indigo Girls saved my life.”
Still, Amy and Emily battled misogyny, homophobia and a harsh cultural climate chastising them for not fitting into a female pop star mold. With joy, humour and heartwarming earnestness, Sundance award-winning director Alexandria Bombach brings us into a contemporary conversation with Amy and Emily—alongside decades of the band's home movies and intimate present-day verité.
by Vera Drew
2022 | USA | Parody | 92 min.
This revolutionary DIY parody film and hilarious reimagining of the classic autobiographical coming-of-age story follows an unconfident, closeted trans girl as she moves to Gotham City to make it big as a comedian by joining the cast of UCB Live - a government-sanctioned late night sketch show in a world where comedy has been outlawed. As mainstream success eludes our heroine, leading her to unite with a ragtag team of rejects, misfits, and a certain love interest named Mister J, "Joker the Harlequin" is born again as a confident (and psychotic) joker on a collision course with the city's fascist caped crusader. Vats of feminizing chemicals, sexy cartoon interludes, scarecrow psychiatrists, CGI Lorne Michaels, and psychedelic gender dysphoria all play supporting roles. Helmed by writer/director/editor/star Vera Drew and using her own life experiences as a basis for the film, THE PEOPLE'S JOKER is a deeply personal journey that's as much documentary as it is parody.
by Marusya Bociurkiw
2024 | Canada | Documentary | 90 min.
Flush with contributions from Canadian political lesbians, this feature-length documentary traces the rise and fall of analogue feminist media that preceded the both digital technology and the MeToo era. From Halifax to Vancouver, feminist storytellers of the 1970s to 1990s took hold of then-cutting-edge technology to document everything from racism in the women's movement, to how to insert a diaphragm. Funny, smart, and sometimes heartbreaking stories from some of Canada's most important media makers and thinkers climax with the Montréal Massacre, followed by targeted government cutbacks. The film concludes with a resurgence: young BIPOC feminists using analogue strategies to create new feminist digital networks.
by Jules Rosskam
2024 | USA | Hybrid Doc | 81 min.
Desire Lines is a hybrid feature film that blends personal interviews, archival materials, and narrative fiction as a framework for exploring the complicated and often unwritten history of transmasculine sexuality. Testimonials from transgender men both past and present dissect how cultural expectations, political agendas, and gatekeeping practices shape the locus of desire. The film pivots between fantasy, fiction, and fact using the letters and interviews of Lou Sullivan as the historical core. Interspersed throughout are clips of the heart-wrenching final interviews between psychiatrist Dr. Ira Pauly and Lou in his final days before succumbing to AIDS. Alongside the contemporary oral histories from a diverse group of transmen across the US, participants candidly discuss the evolution of their desires and illuminate their struggles with gender (non)conformity, fetishization, transphobia, safer sex, and sexual racism.
by Jane Schoenbrun
2024 | USA | Horror-Drama | 100 min.
Teenager Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack. With a distinctive visual aesthetic that enhances its emotionally resonant narrative, I Saw the TV Glow further establishes writer-director Jane Schoenbrun as a rising talent.
Canada | Documentary 15 min. French w/ English subtitles
France | Fantasy, 22 min. French w English subtitles
Switzerland | Documentary | 22 min. French w/ English subtitles
Canada | Experimental | 21 min. English and French
Spain | Drama, 17 min.
Brazil | Drama | 23 min. Portugese w/ English subtitles
Spain | Documentary | 20 min. Spanish w/ English subtitles
Spain | Drama | 13 min.
Canada | Animation | 7 min.
Canada | Documentary | 7 min.)
New Zealand | Drama | 11 min.
USA | Drama | 23 min.
Germany | Drama | 30 min.
USA | Narrative | 15 min.
3 min.
USA | Documentary | 23 min.
3 min.
USA | Drama | 14 min.
Germany | Drama | 20 min.
The Indie - 162 Mackenzie Street North Side Entrance
BEST OF QUEER SHORTS
Francophone (90 min.)
MOTHER SAIGON (85 min.)
I DONT KNOW WHO YOU ARE (105 min.)
Indie Launch Party
BEST OF QUEER SHORTS
Latin
PRIDE VS PREJUDICE (80 min.)
LANGUE ÉTRANGÈRE (105 min.)
SEBASTIAN (110 min.)
After Party
Alibi Room
Queer Youth Showcase + What Are you Having?
BEST OF QUEER SHORTS 1
CORA BORA (81 min.)
LOITERING WITH INTENT (88 min.)
IT'S ONLY LIFE AFTER ALL (123 min.)
THE PEOPLE'S JOKER (92 min.)
After-Party
Zig's Bar
BEST OF QUEER SHORTS 2 (90 min.)
ANALOGUE REVOLUTION (90 min.)
DESIRE LINES (81 min.)
I SAW THE TV GLOW (100 min.)